Confusion over diplomatic standoff deepens after conflicting reports about the soldiers’ whereabouts
Eleven Nigerian military personnel are reportedly still in Burkina Faso days after their plane made an “unauthorised” landing in the south-west city of Bobo Dioulasso, despite earlier suggestions they had been freed, deepening confusion about the diplomatic standoff.
Burkinabé authorities told the BBC on Tuesday that the troops had been released and given permission to return to Nigeria, but officials in Abuja have said the matter is yet to be resolved.
The Nigerian daily the Punch quoted Kimiebi Ebienfa, a foreign ministry spokesperson, as saying late on Wednesday that that Nigerian embassy in Ouagadougou was “engaging with the host authorities to secure their release”.
The saga began on Monday when a Nigerian military cargo plane, a C-130, travelling from Lagos to Portugal was forced to land in Burkina Faso. Authorities in the country, which is part of the three-member Alliance of Sahel States (AES), called the landing an “unfriendly act carried out in defiance of international law” in a statement that evening.
